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Conference Room 3 - Salle de Conférence Room 3 (2220)

This is where the streaming for all sessions in Conference Room 3 will take place. You can also watch this stream on Bell Expressvu on channel 539 (St. Andrews Community TV, New Brunswick).

When sessions are live, main talking points will be noted in the comment section below. You can email any questions you would like directed to the panel to Conference3@ComMediaConverge.ca.

After sessions are finished, you can go to the discussion pages to see a summary of the talking points in each session by stream, and make any further comments. The Community Media Policy Working Group will consider all feedback received in making its policy recommendations.

Comments

09h30 Community Media as a Training Ground and Experimental Platform for the Professional Industry | Rôle des médias communnautaires à titre de formateur pour l’industrie

1) Ken Zakreski raised concern that community media face losing talent too soon after training it. What do you think could be done about this on a policy level?

2) Susan Brinton raised concern about local content being crowded out by commercial productions. Can something be done about this on the policy level?

3) Susan Brinton talks of the corporatisation of community television, partly owing to budgetary constraints and a dearth of skills among volunteer talent. She says that this takes away from a means of self-representation for the community. What policy interventions could help prevent this if any?

4) Jim McGinley thinks it would help to have funding for game jams. Do you think this would be a legitimate investment for public funds?

5) Susan Brinton raised the issue of multi-platforming content and the copyright problems they throw up. How to square copyright issues with the desirability and advantages of putting local content on multiple media platforms?

6) Anna Scollan says that her talent collective have the financial backing of the provincial government through Emploi Quebec as well as agreements with schools that offer training to members. Is this a model that could world elsewhere in the country? Perhaps at the federal level?

1) David Murphy speaks of the advantages of opensource game technology at community level, citing what this does for developing the talents of children. Could the public authorities at any given level come in and facilitate this at policy level?

1) Izzie Colpitts-Campbell talks about how women in the gaming community are coming together through organisations such as Dames Making Games to offer alternative gender narratives. How can policy interventions facilitate this work.

3) Gretchen King addresses policies and policy issues around equity in community media. She says some rules and regulations already exist to enable and compel community media decision-makers to cater to equity-seeking groups. Is enough being done in terms of the policy framework being sufficient or adequately implemented?

3) Cathy Edwards presents various funding models from other parts of the world and their advantages and disadvantages. They include include federal, municipal, membership fees, advertising, NGOs, and industry taxation. Could Canadian community media borrow from some of these?

4) Sue Buske says that cable companies are tending away from taking responsibility for community channels because they don't see any profit potential there. She says that this means that local communities need to be enabled technology-wise and in terms of management skills to pick up the slack.

5) Kirsten Kozolanka and Michael Lithgow recommend policy interventions that would reduce this loss of collective public memory. Notably, they suggest that a set of terminologies specific to alternative media be developed and that alternative media take a cooperative approach to archiving.

6) Theresa Sorel presents on the City of Ottawa's efforts at archiving audio-visual materials, in particular from community media sources. She discusses the special challenges that are involved in deciding what is retained as well as budgetary and technological limitations.

3) Participants report back on results of workshop discussions. Two groups said effective audience research should establish whether community media is reflecting the community in its own eyes. One group says research should seek to establish how many members of the community would wish to fund the media.